Latest Eric Mamajek Stories

Watch out Saturn, there's a new star in town. A huge star has been discovered with rings 200 times bigger and brighter than Saturn's, and a recent eclipse allowed for scientists to gather more intel on this galactic super star.

While the staggering vastness of our universe may increase the chances that there could be life out there somewhere, it also makes the search for alien life akin to looking for a needle in a cosmic haystack.

In this installment of our new podcast series, redOrbit’s resident astronomer spoke with Dr. Eric Mamajek from the University of Rochester about the search for planets outside of our solar system and the possibility of finding life beyond Earth.

Low in the south in the summer sky shines the constellation Scorpius and the bright, red supergiant star Antares. Many of the brightest stars in Scorpius, and hundreds of its fainter stars, are among the youngest stars found near the earth, and a new analysis of them may result in a rethinking of both their ages and the ages of other groups of stars.

170 light-years away from earth exists a particularly puzzling orbiting object. This object, 2M1207B, seems to be physically impossible. Nothing about it matches any established astronomical theory.

Word of the Day

pawl

A pivoted catch designed to fall into a notch on a ratchet wheel so as to allow movement in only one direction (e.g. on a windlass or in a clock mechanism), or alternatively to move the wheel in one direction.